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Cosmin Ilie
Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Contact
I use computational methods, data analysis, and forecasting techniques to connect experiments and theory in cosmology. My work focuses primarily on Dark Matter and its potential observable signatures. For example, I have explored how Dark Matter affects the formation of the first stars in the Universe. One of the most striking consequences we find is that they can become as massive as a million suns. Those enormously bright objects, formed during the cosmic dawn era, could potentially be detected by the James Webb Space telescope. In fact, in 2023 we have identified the first three Dark Star candidates: JADES-GS-z13, JADES-GS-z-12, and JADES-GS-z13. My work on this subject has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals and was popularized in magazines such as National Geographic, Scientific American, New Scientist, to name a few. This media coverage has reached a potential audience of well over a billion people.
Current research interests, in addition to those listed above, include the exploration of Dark Matter in non standard cosmological histories, and the effects Dark Matter captured by compact astrophysical objects has on their evolution.